Professor Rafael Luciani, S.T.D. is a world renown expert on synodality in the Catholic Church who knows much about the current efforts of Pope Francis to create a new phase in the reception of Vatican II — a church that “walks together” discerning the future.

Professor Luciani argues that what is at stake is nothing less that the Church’s fidelity to her calling as a follower of Jesus and her response to the new signs of the times.  He contends that synodality is a re-ordering of relationships within the church.  In this new ecclesial “we”, all the faithful – from the pope to the laity – are equals in a communion, with the same responsibility regarding the identity, vocation, and mission of the Church.

Professor Rafael Luciani is lay theologian from Venezuela who has been appointed as Expert of the Theological Commission of the General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops. He holds degrees of Doctor in Theology and Licenciate in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome; Baccalaureatum in Philosophy and Baccalaureatum in Theology from the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome; and Licenciate in Education (with mention in Philosophy) earned from the Jesuit`s Catholic University Andrés Bello in Caracas. He is an Associate Professor of the Practice at Boston College and is currently engaged in postdoctoral research activities at the Julius-Maximilians Universität in Würzburg, Germany.

He is the author of Synodality: A New Way of Proceeding in the Church, the book FutureChurch used during our three-week book study in October.